Defensive Gun Use of the Day: Don’t Mess with Texas Edition

The Dallas/Ft. Worth area of Texas isn’t necessarily the most pristine and crime free locale in the state. Heck, I still have nightmares about the night I spent there earlier this year. But the one thing Dallas has going for it just about everywhere you go is a gun-loving population willing to defend themselves, something that two armed would-be burglars found out this Wednesday . . .

It was a bright and sunny day, not a cloud in the sky. On a quiet street in a red brick house, a young woman was home alone while her parents were working. All of a sudden, the sound of two men kicking down her door broke the tranquility of the day. And then she plugged them for their trouble. NBC picks up the story:

Dallas police said the woman was home alone when she heard a noise — two men had kicked in the front door of her house.

She confronted the two men as they reached the second-floor landing and shot at them several times, police said.

The intruders ran out the front door, and one of the men collapsed from a gunshot wound, police said.

He was transported to Methodist Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The other man is still on the run.

Investigators said a gun recovered at the home indicates that at least one of the intruders was armed.

This is a story that could have ended very differently. We’re talking about two men, who were confirmed to be armed at the time, breaking into a house. At the very least they had larceny in their hearts, but its not a stretch to think that kidnapping, rape or murder could have been on the agenda as well. And instead of a grieving father and a protracted manhunt, what we have is quite possibly my favorite quote ever from the father.

Charles Brown, the father of the 22-year-old woman who fired the shots, said he is proud of his daughter.

“Yeah, it is — it’s puffed out because I’m real proud of her because I taught her that,” he said. “I taught my girls that — to defend themselves when someone come to hurt them, and apparently she listened.

[…]

“I really don’t have a problem with what my baby done to them,” he said. “I just hate that she hesitated and didn’t get them both.”

This isn’t the first time the house had been broken into. The neighborhood has been going downhill according to Mr. Brown, with crime on the rise. But I get the feeling that the knowledge that the citizens are armed and ready to defend themselves will be a deterrent to future crime.

Millions of dollars spent on community services could work to reduce crime. A nice little program that would offer defensive tools and training to people living in less fortunate conditions would have a huge impact on violent crime in the inner city.

Statistically you’ll never have to use your gun to protect yourself. Ask Ms. Brown this morning what she thinks about stats. Then ask the Petit women about the stats. Oh that’s right, you can’t ask the Petit girls, they’re still dead.

I would rather risk one of my kids accidentally shooting themselves than have them unarmed when the front door gets kicked in. You can control some of the accidental risks. Not so much the door kickers and window breakers.

Whenever I hear somebody argue that “on average” (which is what you mean when you say statistically) you are more likely to get shot accidentally or otherwise if you keep a gun in the house my response is either:
1) Don’t be average. Be better than average. If you can’t comprehend that, that’s because you don’t have the right mentality for living in the real world, nevermind guns.
2) Buy more than one gun. 🙂

I like the way someone explained statistics to me — they used contraception for the object lesson. A condom is effective something like 99% of the time. So it would only fail to prevent a pregnancy once for every 100 uses. Sounds great, right? Here’s the problem. That one failure per 100 could happen the first time, the fourth time, the 85th time, or whatever. Since you don’t know when that 1 out of 100 will happen, it is still a complete gamble to rely on the odds for a positive outcome.

I never relied on condoms and I don’t rely on happenstance for my personal security. That’s why I carry concealed at home, in my car, at the grocery store, etc. You never know if/when a criminal will attack you.

My house has exterior and interior security cameras which record anytime there’s movement. Pretty sure I’ll have some excellent HD-quality footage to share if anyone ever comes in uninvited.

“And here they are kicking in the front door, now let’s switch to the inside camera… and here they are heading for the stairs… if you listen, you can count the shots… and here comes the survivor fleeing down the stairs… and here’s the outdoor camera footage of the perp bleeding all over my front porch…”

“At the very least they had larceny in their hearts, but its not a stretch to think that kidnapping, rape or murder could have been on the agenda as well”

Two months ago, I took my CC class from a retired Portland police officer who was in three (3) fatal shootings in his 25 year career. He told us that the newest trend being observed in home intrusions is that of a husband-wife couple breaking in while a third person remains on the street as look-out. The trainer went on to state that the intruders do Not want to leave witnesses and that to expect them to attempt to murder you and your family. The two-person intruder trend is not yet the norm as I understand it. I am not yet trading in my 5-shot revolver for a high-capacity pistol, however, it is something to be aware of in preparing. The normal criminal-response (no matter how manner thugs arrive together) is to flee once an armed home-owner or store-owner aims or aims and fires the first round, and not shoot it out.

Definitely badly for the young woman & if she was shot there would be calls for greater restrictions on legally held firearms.
Socialists never allow reason to influence their desire for ever greater control over the people.